This error occurs if the password you created is:

• Easily guessable (contains common words such as “password”)
• Contains information that is easily identifiable (your name, birth date, birth year, current year, etc.)
• Contains sequences of consecutive numbers such as “123”

This error occurs if the password you created is:

• Too similar to one of your last five passwords
• Does not contain one or more of the required criteria

This error occurs when the wrong email address is entered as your User ID. If you encounter this error, check to ensure that your email is entered correctly. Your GCU email should follow this format:

username@my.gcu.edu

This error occurs when the code you entered does not match the code that was most recently provided. If you sent yourself multiple codes, make sure you are entering the most recent one.

If necessary, you can restart the process and send yourself a new code.

If you are a student, follow the steps below to reset your authentication options.

If you are a preceptor or faculty, sign into outlook.com and skip to step 3. If you are still unable to reset your authentication options, please contact Technical Support. We can provide you with a new temporary password to get into your account. Additionally, we can get the incorrect authentication options removed. 

1. Log into the GCU Portal using your GCU username and password. If you don’t know your password, contact Technical Support and we can send you a temporary password that you can use to log in for this process.
2. Once inside the GCU Portal, select the Email app.
   
   
3. Select the profile icon in the upper right corner of your email, and then My account or View account (it could be listed as either).
   
   
4. Select the Security info tab on the left side menu.
   
   
   
   
   NOTE At this point, you may be asked to confirm your identity. If so, select the re-enter my password button, and enter your password again. If you are not prompted to enter your password again, skip to the next step.
5. The next page will list your current authentication options. You can click Change on the Phone or Email tabs to update your authentication option information. Clicking Delete will remove it from the list. Clicking Add method will provide a window to select which method you would like to add. After selecting the method, click Add to proceed.
   
   
   
   
6. Enter the new phone number or email address that you’d like to set as your authentication method. You can also use the Microsoft Authenticator app as an authentication method, but GCU Technical Support provides limited support with this app and recommend using the phone number option. Then click Next to send an email or text to the contact information provided.
   
   
   NOTE Your authentication options are used for password recovery and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Meaning that if you change or delete your phone number or the authenticator app following these steps, then your MFA will be changed as well.
7. Once you’ve finished entering the verification code, you will receive a confirmation message. 
   
   
   
   
   NOTE You can repeat this process for the second method, but you can only add one of each method types.

If this error occurs, and you are a faculty or preceptor, contact Technical Support for further assistance.

This error sometimes occurs during the initial set-up process. If this error occurs, first make sure you are logging into the correct website. The web address for the GCU Portal is gcuportal.gcu.edu.

If you’ve confirmed that the correct website is being accessed and the problem still occurs, ensure that you are entering your login credentials correctly. If you have additional accounts with Microsoft, such as a personal account, your browser may be entering the saved login information for that account instead.

If the error still occurs, we recommend switching to another browser or clearing cache and cookies. See Basic Troubleshooting for steps on this process if needed.

Your GCU password will expire every 180 days. In the past, GCU student passwords did not expire, so you may be used to using the same password all the time. When your password has reached 180 days of use, you will receive the following prompt upon trying to log into the GCU Portal:

“You need to update your password because this is the first time you are signing in, or because your password has expired.”

Enter your current password, and then a new password. Enter the new password a second time to confirm it. If you need any assistance with the password creation process, see the Password Criteria section in the accordion above.

In the future, two weeks prior to your password reaching the expiration date, you will be notified via a pop up in the bottom corner of your screen. You can wait until your password expires, or reset it ahead of time by clicking the Change it now button.

This error occurs after five unsuccessful attempts at resetting your password in one hour. This includes entering the wrong verification phone number five times. Should this error occur, you will have to wait the full 24 hours to attempt another password reset. If you need immediate access to information in your Student Portal, or if you’re attempting to access your Halo course(s), contact Technical Support. We can provide a temporary password that you can use until the 24-hour timeframe has expired. Once it has expired, we recommend attempting the reset process again and reaching out to Technical Support for assistance if needed.

You may be directed to this page when trying to log into your Student Portal. This page is used to verify the authentication options that are associated with your account. If the phone number and email address are correct, select the looks good button to confirm.

Depending on the email service you use (such as Gmail or Yahoo!), the new GCU account email username and password may display as blank when emailed to you. Some email providers hide images by default to allow them to load faster. Typically, there is a button to display all images or show all images that you can click on allowing the display of images, which should load the username and password. If you aren't able to find these buttons, try forwarding the email without sending it. This should force the email to load properly and display the username and password.

While rare, it is possible for the reset process to vary slightly from the typical workflow. When a student is accepted to GCU, their first password is automatically generated and will be valid for 180 days before it expires. If a student’s original password expires before they have an opportunity to set up authentication options, the self-service password reset (SSPR) process on the GCU Portal prioritizes the 180 day expiration/reset requirement above the necessity to create authentication options. Therefore, students who allowed their original password to expire prior to setting up authentication options will be prompted to create a new password first.

While this order differs slightly from the norm, there is no cause for concern. Once authentication options have been set up, all future reset experiences will follow the expected flow.